By Kieona George
The Ryerson Good Food Market (GFM) will return to campus on Thursday, Nov. 7 in front of the Student Campus Centre.
The GFM is a collaborative initiative between several student-led groups, including the Ryerson Students’ for Food Security and the Continuing Education Students’ Association of Ryerson (CESAR).
From 3 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. students can get produce at affordable prices such as six apples for a dollar. The food being sold this week include fresh-made soup that is pay what you can, whole grain bread, squashes, zucchinis, bananas, mangoes, eggplant, kale, potatoes and more.
The GFM is accepting cash only and are encouraging shoppers to bring a reusable bag.
“It’s for everyone. Especially because some people don’t even know that they have food insecurity. What we’re trying to do is meet people halfway,” said Maria Jude, a staff member and co-founder of the GFM.
Jude said the GFM strives to be a reliable source of affordable produce on campus. GFM allows all community members to have high-quality fruits and vegetables—with the added benefit of helping those with food insecurity.
Food insecurity is not having reliable access to a sufficient amount of food. Moderate food insecurity includes compromising on the quality and variety of food and skipping meals due to a reduced food quantity. Severe food insecurity is going a day or more without food.
Jude said many students don’t understand that they are experiencing food insecurity because some signs of it have been normalized.
“Eating ramen every day because you can’t afford food anymore because you pay for textbooks—that’s definitely not normal,” said Jude. “Having iced coffee as a meal replacement—that’s definitely not normal, but it’s been normalized.”
The GFM works to make people feel comfortable about accessing the food. “There’s no limit. Even community members, staff, faculty—they’ve all shopped at the Good Food Market. We’ve never turned anybody away.”
Students who are interested in becoming volunteers for the GFM are suggested to send an email to gfm@mycesar.ca.
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